[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] Use v4l2 input format automatically if filename starts with "/dev/video"

[Reimar Döffinger]

On Sat, Oct 25, 2014 at 02:15:47PM +0200, wm4 wrote:
> > I admittedly just assumed that v4l2:///dev/video/... would work
> > currently. If not, that sounds like something that can and should
> > be fixed.
> > However as a convenience feature, I think it is good that /dev/video
> > just ends up picking the v4l2 input, because in almost all cases
> > that would be the desired behaviour.
> 
> As a user, I wouldn't really expect that this works. Rather, I'd assume
> I'd have to do something special to get the program to use video.
> With current ffmpeg, you have to specify _both_ the "special
> thing" (the demuxer) _and_ the video device, which is a bit of a WTF.

Hm. Haven't looked, but there should be mechanisms for the device to
specify a demuxer to use.
Unfortunately I don't have the right hardware to test any of this.

> As I said, using a special protocol (like tv://) would be a nice
> alternative, which can also include automatically selecting the video
> device (for the right platform!), but maybe I'm spoiled by the MPlayer
> way of doing things.

I misunderstood what you meant by that earlier.
Such a special protocol that doesn't need /dev/video magic would probably be
a good idea.
But it's kind of unrelated to this (if you want a special video device,
just being able to specify it is IMHO nice).